Substituting butter for shortening?

Ron S said:

It is cookie baking time again! A lot of cookie recipes call for shortening.
But all shortening I am able to find is made from soybean oil or includes
other soy products to which I am allergic. Butter is my only option.

What is the rule for substituting butter in cookies? Is it generally one for
one? Or should I add an extra egg or more flour or more sugar or use less
butter?

Butter is typically about 10% water, so be generous.... you can never
have too much butter.

Sheldon

Quoted message said:

Butter is typically about 10% water, so be generous.... you can never
have too much butter.

Well I found out the hard way that using more butter than shortning is a
bad idea. The cookies spread out more than double and were hard and
greasy. I had to throw the whole batch away.

Does anyone know how to do this? Or is this just hopeless?

Ron S said:

Quoted message said:

Butter is typically about 10% water, so be generous.... you can never
have too much butter.

Well I found out the hard way that using more butter than shortning is a
bad idea. The cookies spread out more than double and were hard and
greasy. I had to throw the whole batch away.

Does anyone know how to do this? Or is this just hopeless?

How much more butter did you use? A recipe that called for a half cup
of shortening would half the same amount of fat as a half cup of butter
plus 2 approximately tablespoons Try chilling the dough before baking
the cookies. Butter has a lower melting point than shortening and if
you can keep the butter in the dough from melting too soon the cookies
won't spread out as much.

djs0302 said:

Ron S said:

Quoted message said:

Butter is typically about 10% water, so be generous.... you can never
have too much butter.

Well I found out the hard way that using more butter than shortning is a
bad idea. The cookies spread out more than double and were hard and
greasy. I had to throw the whole batch away.

Does anyone know how to do this? Or is this just hopeless?

How much more butter did you use? A recipe that called for a half cup
of shortening would half the same amount of fat as a half cup of butter
plus 2 approximately tablespoons Try chilling the dough before baking
the cookies. Butter has a lower melting point than shortening and if
you can keep the butter in the dough from melting too soon the cookies
won't spread out as much.

I have had success with things like this by refrigerating the dough
before forming the cookies, right before baking.

--

saerah

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A recipe that called for a half cup of shortening would HAVE the same
amount of fat as a half cup of butter plus approximately 2 tablespoons.

at Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:04:00 GMT in <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] (Ron S) wrote :

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Butter is typically about 10% water, so be generous.... you can never
have too much butter.

Well I found out the hard way that using more butter than shortning is a
bad idea. The cookies spread out more than double and were hard and
greasy. I had to throw the whole batch away.

Does anyone know how to do this? Or is this just hopeless?

With the same recipes and proportions, cookies made with butter instead of
shortening will be flatter, more spread-out, and crisper. If they're
designed to be soft and puffy, then in order to compensate you'll need to
increase the egg ratio. Exactly how much depends on the recipe in question
and the intended results. I suppose this is the first step - post the
recipes.

However, many if not most times the difference in results isn't a big deal.
Either the cookies may be equally satisfactory flatter and crisper, or the
impact may be small in any case. It really depends on how close to the
original recipe you were hoping to get.

--
Alex Rast
[email hidden]
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)